ActBlue, the main source used by Democrats and aligned groups for taking political donations, has been under scrutiny over alleged fraud and irregularities with donations made on the platform. In October, Steil issued a subpoena to ActBlue for documents related to their donor verification policies, and on Monday, the two committee chairmen sent a letter to the company, which provides ActBlue’s “fraud detection and prevention services,” for information and documents about its work with ActBlue.

Jordan and Steil sent a letter to Sift CEO Kris Nagel with “urgent concerns regarding potential illicit election funding by foreign actors.” They alleged, based on reports, that ActBlue “maintained poor anti-fraud practices that have allowed bad actors to make fraudulent political donations, including from
foreign sources.”

“Fraudulent political donations corrupt American elections and could amount to interstate criminal conduct. Because Sift has provided ‘fraud detection and prevention services’ for ActBlue, we write to request your cooperation with our oversight,” said the letter.

The committee chairmen request all documents and communications from Jan. 1, 2020, to present relating to “Sift’s efforts to deter fraudulent transactions on ActBlue,” “potentially fraudulent transactions on ActBlue,” along with the use of CVVs, debit cards, gift card, and prepaid cards on ActBlue.

The letter also requests documents and communications between law enforcement over “potentially fraudulent transactions” on the platform, as well as communications and documents about the “potential use of ActBlue by foreign nationals, sanctioned individuals or entities, or sanctioned adjacent persons or entities to make illegal political contributions.”

The pair said the alleged vulnerabilities in ActBlue’s fraud detection services may have been exploited by adversarial countries, including China, Russia, Iran, and Venezuela.

“It appears that ActBlue’s ‘fraud detection and prevention services’ likely failed to stop fraudulent transactions from occurring on the platform. The potential that these bad actors may have exploited lax security measures provided to ActBlue by Sift forces the Committees to examine the potential criminal and national security ramifications,” the letter said.

The letter is the latest action by House Republicans in their investigation into ActBlue, which included Steil sending letters to five state attorneys general over the committee’s findings on the alleged “straw donors” on ActBlue earlier this year.

The committee found in its investigation “suspicious trends” with ActBlue, including donations not matching up with the net worth or history of the listed individual, frequent donations from older and first-time donors, and donations to politicians that are the opposite in ideology from previous politicians the individual has donated to.